Chapter 4. KIDS & CONCUSSION
Most parents would
say childhood is a
concussion waiting
to happen. Whether it’s
toddlers with a fascination for
staircases, children who love
riding bikes, or adolescents
playing sports with reckless
enthusiasm, at some point
many young people will thump
their head hard enough to
make a parent’s heart stop.
Just as with concussion
in adults, there is growing
awareness of the potential
long-term consequences of the
injury in young people. Where
once a child or adolescent
might have been sent back
to the playground or back to
school after a head impact,
now parents, teachers and
doctors are taking a much
more conservative approach to
managing concussion.
THE DEVELOPING BRAIN
Because children have weaker
necks and torsos than adults,
less force is needed to cause a
brain injury. Most concussion
cases occur in young people
aged 5 to 14. In children and
adolescents, the two most
common causes are sporting
and cycling accidents.
There is still only a limited
understanding of the effects of
concussion on the developing
brain, partly because studying
these is difficult. The developing
brain responds to trauma
differently to the adult brain,
and is in some respects more
vulnerable to damage.
The frontal and temporal
lobes of the brain – regions
responsible for executive
functions and processing
sensory input – continue
maturing into the early 20s.
Damage to still-developing
areas has the potential to result
in detrimental long-term effects.
However, most children
recover fully from concussion.
For children who have
suffered a concussion – or
other mild traumatic brain
injury – studies have found
no significant differences
in learning performance in
school-aged students compared
to their peers. However, in
another study of students
aged five to 18, the presence of
more severe post-concussion
syndrome symptoms was
associated with more school-
related problems and poorer
academic performance.
In 2016, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) released a joint position statement on concussion.
They recommended that parents, coaches and sports administrators should “err on the side of caution” and not allow any child or teenager
with a potential concussion to return to the sporting field until at least two weeks after being cleared of symptoms.
See ama.com.au/position-statement/concussion-sport-2016
PHOTOGRAPHY SERGEYNOVIKOV/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM